Chapter 120: Mutual Congratulations; A Bonus Chapter for Those Who Gifted Tourmalines and Diamonds

That night after I returned, my father talked with me until dawn. He analyzed everything—from his political career to my marriage. “I can’t be so selfish. I can’t sacrifice your father’s career for the sake of a love that has already changed beyond recognition. Lanshan, if you were me, could you bear to sacrifice your father?”

I shook my head instinctively. Whenever I was especially angry and aggrieved, I would threaten to sever my relationship with my father. But once I had calmed down and thought about it, could I really bear to?

The answer was unquestionably no.

Xia Qi asked whether I was still thinking about Luo Ange.

I answered honestly. “Of course I am. How could I not be? Don’t you still think about Jiang Chenghuan?”

The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted them. But Xia Qi merely smiled. “Yes. We both know they aren’t good men, but we still think about them.”

She asked whether I had ever considered trying to salvage the relationship. I fell silent for a moment, remembering those unbearable nights when I had cried out his name with all the anguish in my heart. He had been the one to provoke me first. I had never expected that, in the end, I would be the one unable to let go.

“To be honest, I really did hold on to fantasies at first. I thought everything would be fine once his anger passed. He told me he would never abandon me, even if it killed him. But gradually I understood. How should I put it? When he said he would never abandon me, he meant it. And now, when he says he doesn’t want me, he means that too.”

Xia Qi pursed her lips. “Forget him. Shu Congxuan is so much better. He gives you his whole heart.”

I burst out laughing. How could I accept another man when I had not yet completely let go of the first?

That would be unfair to Shu Congxuan.

I had not seen Luo Ange since the incident at the airport. Instead, one day, on my way home from the bookstore, I ran into Shu Aiqing.

She looked at me with a smile. “Miss Yi, meeting by chance is better than arranging an appointment. Would you do me the honor of joining me for a cup of coffee?”

I looked at her and suddenly understood. This was no chance encounter. She had come looking for me deliberately.

I knew perfectly well what she wanted to say, so after sitting down at the café and taking a sip of coffee, I spoke first. “Miss Shu, I know why you wanted to see me. Please rest assured. My relationship with your brother is nothing more than friendship. I won’t go out of my way to provoke him.”

Shu Aiqing wore exquisite makeup. Her face looked no older than eighteen—flawless and so delicate it seemed it could be shattered by the gentlest touch, like a freshly boiled egg.

She studied me intently. “Miss Yi, do you know? I enjoy talking to girls like you, whose intelligence never seems to go offline. You’re far more capable than my few secretaries.”

Naturally, I did not take that as praise. Although Luo Ange and I had parted ways, for some reason I still instinctively regarded her as an enemy.

I glanced at my watch. “Miss Shu, is there anything else you wanted to say?”

She smiled. “Miss Yi, you’ve guessed wrong. I didn’t come today to ask you to keep away from my brother.”

I could not help looking at her again. What kind of performance was this?

She was quite direct. “Then let me get straight to the point. Miss Yi, I hope you will seriously consider accepting Congxuan.”

Fortunately, I had not been drinking. Otherwise, I might have choked to death on the coffee. Even so, my hand trembled, and some of it spilled.

With a smile, she pulled out a tissue and pressed it against my hand. Then she continued, “I’ve heard everything about Yunnan. I can’t blame my brother for becoming infatuated with you. I like your temperament myself. I watched Congxuan grow up, so seeing him find the girl he loves makes me happy for him.”

I could not quite determine what she was after, and hurriedly interrupted her. “Miss Shu, please allow me to remind you—”

She cut me off. “Miss Yi, whatever existed between you and Luo Ange is in the past. Who doesn’t have a past? I absolutely believe that a woman as intelligent as you knows how to choose.”

I grew even more confused. “What exactly do you mean?”

She leaned back slightly in her chair, idly turning the enormous diamond ring on her ring finger as she spoke in an unhurried voice. “I’m sure Luo Ange has told you about the grievances between us. You must have subconsciously regarded me as the wicked woman who broke apart another family.”

I avoided her gaze. She was truly a clever woman. No wonder Luo Mingze had once been willing to leave his marriage with nothing for her sake.

“At this moment, you must be wondering why, despite knowing about your relationship with Luo Ange, I would still try to bring you and Congxuan together. It’s actually very simple. Between Luo Ange and me—or rather, between the Luo family represented by Luo Ange and the Luo family represented by me—we need a point of balance. Otherwise, this game will end in a stalemate. And you are the best, and currently the only, point of balance I can think of.”

I shook my head to show that I did not understand. When had there come to be two Luo families? And when had I become so important?

Even if there was no possibility left between Luo Ange and me, I still did not want to involve myself in their affairs.

I looked at Shu Aiqing. “What if I refuse?”

She smiled faintly and said with absolute certainty, “You will agree.”

I cast her a sidelong glance. “You’re that confident?”

She took a sip of coffee. “It isn’t confidence in myself. I simply believe, without the slightest doubt, that you don’t want to watch Luo Ange go farther and farther down a road where both sides are destroyed. Over the past few years, we’ve fought each other openly and covertly. He has his stratagems, and I have my countermeasures. Not being able to work at the Luo Ai Group doesn’t matter to me. My husband has plenty of money; Xin’er and I will never have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of our lives. But what about Luo Ange? Every time he makes things difficult for me, his father’s guilt toward me deepens. No—by threefold. There’s Xin’er, and there’s also the child who died. As long as I seize that point, Luo Ange will never be my match for the rest of his life. It’s not that I lack the means to drive him out of the Luo family. I simply don’t think it’s necessary to push matters that far.”

“That is a matter between all of you.”

She shook her head. “Miss Yi, unless you completely leave Luo Ange—and my brother—as well, sooner or later this will become your grievance too. Do you know why the old master was so eager to arrange a marriage between Luo Ange and Yuan Shengxiao? He was looking for a point of balance as well. Unfortunately, I believe he chose the wrong person.”

I was still pondering her words when she rose from her seat, took out two banknotes, and placed them on the table. Then she pushed a business card toward me and smiled sweetly.

“Call me when you’ve thought it through.”

As she turned to leave, I stopped her. “Miss Shu, what if I insist on staying with Luo Ange?”

She paused briefly, then smiled even more brightly than before. “When it comes down to a final choice between two sides, who do you think the Luo family will choose—Luo Ange, or the three of us?”

I watched her walk outside and, surrounded by bodyguards, get into an understated luxury car. Drawing a deep breath, I resisted the urge to tear the business card to pieces, then put it away in my handbag.

At the entrance to the café, I ran into Zheng Nanfeng, his arm around a breathtakingly beautiful woman.

He seemed to freeze slightly when he saw me. I thought he had not remembered who I was, but when I saw the person behind him, I realized that his expression had been one of embarrassment.

Luo Ange had seen me too. He turned his head to glance in the direction where Shu Aiqing had disappeared, then fixed his eyes on me.

“What did that woman want with you?”

My voice was calm. “Nothing. We had coffee together.”

He nodded and looked at me with unmistakable mockery. “Congratulations. Coffee with the whole family.”

As we brushed past each other, I said, “Thank you. And congratulations to you too.”

I did not take the matter particularly seriously. The assistant who had formerly worked for Master Zhou had taken leave, so my next internship assignment was to help him organize his materials.

I was delighted. While sorting the documents, I pestered him to teach me the techniques of making ink rubbings, addressing him as “Master” at every turn until I had him beaming from ear to ear.

One day, Master Zhou asked me to deliver two documents to the Education Bureau for stamping, then go to the printing plant in the southern suburbs and collect some book samples for him.

The printing plant lay beyond the coach station, and that day was no different from any other. The station was crowded with passengers—some perhaps headed elsewhere, others arriving here after traveling long and far. Coming or going, every journey had a door capable of receiving it.

The workers at the printing plant knew that I was Master Zhou’s new assistant, so they treated me courteously, handed over the samples, and even escorted me to the entrance, asking me to convey their greetings to him.

The bus was taking forever to arrive. Since the area was crowded with factories and thick with dust, I decided to walk to the coach station ahead and take the subway from there.

I had walked most of the way without seeing a single person or vehicle. Then I turned a corner and nearly jumped out of my skin.

A large group of men in black came surging toward me from the opposite direction. Images from Hong Kong gangster films flashed through my mind. I gripped the strap of my handbag and stood utterly still.

I was terrified they might suddenly pull machetes from inside their coats, after which the police would discover my body dumped in the wilderness a few days later.

More than ten men passed me, each giving me a glance. I shuddered and was just beginning to congratulate myself on escaping unharmed when someone suddenly seized my arm.

I screamed in terror and instinctively crouched on the ground with my hands over my head.

A pair of feet appeared in my field of vision. Someone squatted in front of me. Trembling, I raised my head and met a handsome black-and-white face.

Not the face of the man crouching before me, but the face of the man in the photograph he was holding out.

The fierce-looking man pointed at the photograph. “Have you seen this person?”

I studied it carefully. The man had delicate features and looked like a college student. His eyes were particularly beautiful, as though they could speak.

I instinctively touched my own face, and the man grew impatient. “Stop mumbling. Have you seen him or not?”

I hurriedly shook my head. Aside from us, there was not even a bird in sight. Where would I have encountered such a handsome man?

He reached inside his clothes. Thinking he was about to pull out a weapon and kill me to silence me, I cried out in terror, “Big brother, I really haven’t seen him! I’m only here to collect some books from the printing plant.”

Someone behind him laughed. One of the men looked me over several times. “Hey, boss, this girl’s pretty. Why don’t we—”

The fierce man swept him with a cold glance, and the others immediately froze.

He said each word distinctly. “If we can’t find him, every one of us will die.”

He withdrew his hand. Only then did I notice that what he had taken out was a walkie-talkie. Holding it to his mouth, he said softly, “Third Master, nothing here.”

For some reason, I suddenly sensed danger. I remembered something from many years ago, back in the small square near my hometown. A group of people had been searching for someone with photographs just like this. Later, there had been a vicious slashing incident.

As I was leaving, I heard one of them snarl, “He’s injured. He couldn’t have gone far. Search again. We need to find him alive or recover his body.”

The whole scene was deeply unsettling. A chill seemed to radiate from the men in black. They did not look like good people.

The moment my feet touched the ground, I practically began sprinting. Behind me came a commotion, followed by someone shouting, “Stop! Don’t move!”

I assumed the men in black had found the person they were searching for, so my heart pounding, I quickened my pace even further.